Named after Roza Luxemburg by the 52nd accused in the Meerut Conspiracy case, Roza Deshpande, 51, proudly calls herself the ''first child of the Communist Party". Simple like a Marathi housewife but articulate like a fiery Marxist, the tiny lady talked to India Today on the recent split in the CPI.

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January 29, 2014

ISSUE DATE: May 15, 1980

UPDATED: November 21, 2014 14:00 IST

Roza Deshpande: 'Judge a government by its policies'

Named after Roza Luxemburg by the 52nd accused in the Meerut Conspiracy case, Roza Deshpande, 51, proudly calls herself the ''first child of the Communist Party". Simple like a Marathi housewife but articulate like a fiery Marxist, the tiny lady talked to India Today on the recent split in the CPI. Excerpts:

On the split: We split because the CPI assessment of the present political situation as well as of other political parties was all wrong. It is following a policy of surrender to the CPI-M.

On Mrs Gandhi's Government: It is anti-imperialist, anti-landlord, anti-monopolist.

On rightist elements in the Congress(I): Have you seen them? Where?

On Sanjay Gandhi's power: I don't know whether he is powerful or not. We must judge a government by its policies.

On the "main enemy": For the CPI the main enemy or the main danger is the authoritarianism of Indira Gandhi. For us, the main danger is American imperialism.

On CPI-M Government in West Bengal: You can't call it anti-monopolist. Has it nationalised the jute industry? No. One of their ministers has even announced that closed factories in the state would be handed over to private capital.

On Russian recognition to her party: It is too early to say. They will judge from the policies we follow. So far there has been no reaction from Moscow. At present they are even inviting the CPI-M.

On Opposition leaders: How can we ally with such people like George Fernandes, Piloo Mody or Morarji Desai? Impossible.

On joining the Congress(I): How can we? Ideologically we cannot be close. We are Marxists. Supposing we were to be in power, the country's picture would have been different.

On the Emergency: We supported it in the beginning. Only later things went wrong. If a similar situation were to arise again, surely we would fight it. But we would have to see in whose company we are opposing authoritarianism.

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